


Tell Her You Love Her

by heavenlyshadows



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: BAMF Michelle Jones, F/M, Flash Thompson Being A Jerk, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23784508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavenlyshadows/pseuds/heavenlyshadows
Summary: “Peter?” Ned stepped into the bathroom with a short knock. “Are you ok?”“Yeah,” he sighed as he wiped the rest of the blood off his chin. “I just thought that once Flash knew I wasn’t lying about the internship he would lay off but I guess not.”“Yeah well, Flash being a dick isn’t going to change just because people at school realize you’re cooler than him.”Peter snorted. “Right.”But, as Parker Luck would have it, Flash punching him in the face wasn’t the worst part of the trip.----Peter's never had good luck, or any luck, with field trips and this one is no different. But when the field trip takes a deadly turn Peter has to decide what's more important, his secret or his friends.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 785
Collections: peter parker and his field trips





	Tell Her You Love Her

**Author's Note:**

> This work is cross-posted on Fanfiction under the same title and author name
> 
> The title comes from the song Tell Her You Love Her by Echosmith

“Hey Penis,” Flash jeered as he got on the bus. “Ready for everyone to see what a liar you are?” Peter just rolled his eyes. The bus ride to the Avengers compound was long and it was going to be even longer if Flash kept this up.

It didn’t help that MJ was mad at him. Or that it was his own fault.

He had skipped out on yet another date the night before with a lame-ass excuse about having to stay home despite the fact that he was swinging through Queens chasing a guy in a stolen car as he said it. This was the third date he had bailed on because of Spider-Man and he knew that, after being together for over a year, he should have been able to tell her. But MJ looked up to Spider-Man. He was a badass who saved people and Peter…. wasn’t.

He didn’t want to take the chance that she would be disappointed, so he kept his mouth shut and she kept being mad.

“Dude,” Ned said after Peter tried to get MJ’s attention and she ignored him. “Just tell her already.” Peter huffed an irritated breath.

“It’s not that simple Ned, I just-she won’t-I can’t.” Ned didn’t let it go.

“Peter, you guys have been together forever. She’s handled a lot since then, why wouldn’t she be able to handle this?”

Peter didn’t look at him.

“Look, my point is, if you can’t tell her now, you might not ever be able to, so maybe you should just get it over with. That way she’ll stop being mad at you and it will be less awkward for me.”

Peter laughed, rolling his eyes. “Ok, whatever Ned.”

-

Flash, surprisingly, left Peter alone for most of the trip.

Until it was time to get off the bus.

Peter jumped from his seat before the driver came to a complete stop, desperate to get off the loud, claustrophobic vehicle, when Flash stuck his foot out into the aisle, sending him sprawling. “Mr.Thompson,” Mr.Harrington scolded sharply. “That’s quite enough. You’re representing Midtown Tech on this trip and I expect you to be on your best behavior. That goes for all of you.”

“Sure thing Mr. H,” Flash said with a shit-eating grin. “I’ll see you inside Penis.” Peter bit his tongue, cutting off an angry retort as he picked himself up off the floor and stepped off the bus.

“Are you ok?” MJ asked once everyone cleared out.

“Yeah. Flash is an idiot, nothing I can’t handle.” She smirked and a mixture of affection and guilt made Peter’s heart skip.

_Just tell her or you might not ever be able to._

“Hey,” he stopped walking and grabbed her gently by the elbow. “I’m sorry about last night, I….um….I just…. I have something to tell you.”

It was as if a wall went up in MJ’s eyes. “Look, Peter, if you’re going to break up with me at least tell me so I’m not wasting my time trying to-”

“What?!” His thought process came to a screeching halt. “Wait MJ no, that’s not what I was doing at all. There’s just a lot going on, not that that’s an excuse but-” he ran a hand through his hair, frustrated with his rambling. “You’re important to me MJ and you deserve better than this. Just, please, give me a chance to explain.”

She stared and for a moment he was afraid she was going to refuse. “Ok. Come with me to my car after we get back to school and we can-”

“Jones! Parker!” Mr.Harrington called. “Let’s go! We don’t have all day!” MJ rolled her eyes but complied.

“After school,” Peter confirmed and he just managed to catch her nod before a tour guide joined them. Peter recognized him; a freshman in college with short brown hair and a bright smile permanently fixed to his face. Ian, Peter thought his name was. “Hello, Midtown Tech. My name is Ian,” Peter mentally high-fived himself for getting it right. “I’ll be your tour guide today. Oh, hey Peter!”

Peter waved and he couldn’t help but feel smug at the expression on Flash’s face as he turned to stare. Ian cleared his throat, drawing the attention back to himself. “Now, in order to get into the compound you’ll need these.” he pulled a plastic visitors lanyard out of the container he carried and held it up for everyone to see. “Each of you has one that you’ll have to scan coming in the door. These passes will only work once so if you try to scan it again, FRIDAY won’t let you into the building. Peter, I assume you have yours with you?” Peter nodded, holding up the pass he pulled from his backpack.

“Who’s FRIDAY?” a girl near the front asked.

“An AI created by Tony Stark. She practically runs the whole facility.” Ian said. “She’ll call out your name when you scan your pass so don’t be alarmed.” He demonstrated, scanning his pass and waiting for the light above the door to turn from red to green.

“Ian Sinclair. Level 2.” FRIDAY spoke.

“Oh, that’s another thing,” Ian said as Peter’s classmates began to file through. “There are different levels of access that passes can give you. You’re visitors, which means you’re at Level 1.” He explained. “Level 2 is for tour guides, janitors, and other lower-level staff. Level 3 is for interns, Level 4 is for government officials and Level 5 is for the Avengers, their families, and Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts. Any questions so far?”

Flash’s hand shot up. “Yeah?” Ian pointed to him.

“Does the compound offer internships to high school students?”

“Not usually but there are a few rare exceptions, like Peter,” Ian said after a moment, causing the smirk to slide off Flash’s face. “He was chosen by Tony Stark as a personal intern so even though he’s only in high school, here he is. Maybe if you get picked by an Avenger,” he mocked. “You can intern here too.”

Flash flushed bright red and Peter could feel the heat of his glare as he scanned his pass.

“Peter Parker. Level 5. Welcome back, sir.” FRIDAY almost sounded happy to see him.

“Hey FRIDAY.”

Ned was the only one who wasn’t staring. Even MJ looked a little impressed. “How is he a Level 5?” Flash cried. “You said interns were Level 3!”

“I also said that Peter was an exception. He’s Mr.Stark’s personal intern.” Peter could have sworn he saw Ian wink at him before he turned and led the group through the building’s main lobby. “So today we’ll walk through here and look at the lab where most of the Avengers tech is built and then we’ll go out there,” he pointed out the window to a smaller shop offset from the rest of the building. “And you’ll get the chance to meet the Avengers and ask them some questions.”

The students chattered anxiously and Peter wanted to be as excited as they were but he couldn’t speak around the nauseous feeling in his throat. Allowing his superhero life and his normal one to mix was a bad idea. It was one thing when it was only Tony and a bunch of interns who had no idea what his job as Tony’s “intern” actually was but if he had known all the Avengers were going to be there, he wouldn’t have let May sign the permission slip.

This wasn’t good at all.

-

There weren’t as many people in the lab as Peter was used to. A few scientists lingered at the different work tables, and Bruce Banner stood among them, squinting at plans for a quiver of arrows on the screen in front of him. “Alright everyone,” Ian said as they all crammed into the small space. Or at least, small when there were nearly thirty high schoolers in it. “This is where the magic happens. Or most of it.”

Bruce looked up, frowning when he spotted Peter amongst the group. Peter supposed it was hard for him, someone who rarely ever left the compound, to remember that some of the Avengers had lives outside of hero work.

“Hello everyone,” he said reservedly. “I’m Dr.Banner. Does anyone have any questions for me?”

Nearly everyone’s hand shot up in the air.

“Yeah,” Bruce said, pointing to a redhead towards the front. “What do you do when you’re not out being the Hulk?” Banner winced at the name of his green counterpart but answered her question nonetheless. “Well um, the Hulk is usually only needed for heavy-duty missions, which don’t happen often thankfully, so mostly I’m here,” He held his arms out to the lab around him, a small smile in his face. “Modifying gear or patching people up if need be.” The redhead nodded as he moved on to the next question.

“What’s that?” The boy standing next to Peter asked, pointing to the arrows on the screen.

“My latest project. Recently we met a group from space that had an interesting piece of tech we wanted to try and replicate for Hawkeye.” A few taps of the screen and the arrows were replaced by a fin that had been broken up into parts even a civilian could recognize weren’t from this planet.

“Yondu’s Yaka Arrow,” Ned whispered.

Bruce nodded. “Yes. The only problem is that the technology used to build this is native to the Centaurian people and we can’t quite figure out how to replicate it on this planet.”

“Yo Banner.” Every head turned as Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff strode into the room. “How’s it going with those new arrows?”

Bruce sighed. “Still a work in progress.”

“Dammit.” Clint shook his head in dismay.

“Who are they?” Natasha asked, gesturing towards Peter’s class.

“Tour group from Midtown Tech,” Bruce replied and at Nat’s frown, elaborated. “A high school downtown.”

“Midtown Tech,” Clint muttered. “Isn’t that-” he scanned the group and stopped when he spotted Peter. “Parker! Great job with that car-” Peter’s eyes widened in horror. This was it. Clint fucking Barton was about to ruin everything.

When he realized what he had done the archer scrambled to pave over his mistake. “Um, great job with the project last night. You did a good job.” Peter groaned. He could practically feel Michelle’s eyes burning holes in his head and he wished Clint would shut up.

“So you were here last night? I thought you were stuck at home.”

“MJ-”

“So this is the girlfriend I’ve heard so much about?” Nat inquired smoothly. “It’s very nice to meet you.” She held out her hand and MJ’s expression melted from furious to flattered in less than a second. “You too Ms.Romanoff.”

“Please, Natasha’s fine.”

“Natasha.” MJ corrected.

The assassin chuckled and Peter silently thanked the gods for her as she turned her attention to the rest of the class, his whereabouts the night before forgotten. “Well then, does anyone have any questions for us while we’re here?”

Ned raised his hand and when Nat called on him he was so flustered he could barely get his question out. “Oh um, I-I was just wondering what kind of training you guys have to do to get as good at fighting as you are?”

Clint and Nat exchanged a look. “We’ll show you.” They led the students out of the lab and to the elevator, which they took to the fourth floor. The doors opened to a massive room that was near twice the size of Midtown’s gym. A mat was laid out on the floor and various targets for arrows, guns, and throwing knives lined one wall. Punching bags hung from the ceiling at the back of the room near rows of weight-lifting equipment and long spars hung on metal racks. Peter spent hours in this room every week but still tried to act as amazed as the rest of his class as they entered. Steve and Bucky were there, spotting each other as they took swings at a demolished punching bag.

“Boys!” Nat called. “Come here.” Steve turned away from the bag, using the back of his hand to wipe sweat from his forehead.

“Hello everyone. I’m Steve Rogers. Welcome to the compound.” Bucky didn’t give more than a small wave, and the other kids murmured nervously as he walked out of the room.

_It's him. It's the Winter Soldier._

Bucky wasn’t comfortable training with anyone except Steve or Nat on a regular day, Peter knew there was no way in hell he was going to spar with high school students.

“This is where we train,” Nat said, walking backward like a tour guide. “We often use weapons, but we also practice hand-to-hand combat. That’s what you’ll learn today.” She stepped onto the mat and Clint and Steve took positions on either side of her.

“Now, everyone get into three lines. We’ll teach you some basic blocks and offensive punches and then split you into pairs.”

Peter ended up in Clint’s line and when it was finally his turn, the punches the archer threw came faster and harder than they had with the other students, one catching him in the chest hard enough to force the air from his lungs. “Dude,” Clint whispered. “You know all this stuff already. Why are you letting me kick your ass?”

“Because,” Peter hissed, sloppily dodging another punch. “As far as they know, I’ve never been athletic and you already almost told them about Spider-Man once. I don't think me suddenly being a master of jiu-jitsu is going to help.”

Clint nodded. “Fair point.”

Eventually, Peter was sent to practice with everyone else and he paired up with the first person he could find. Her name was Diana, a timid girl who transferred to Midtown last semester and Peter was surprised to see how quickly she had picked up the moves. After about five minutes Nat called for them to rotate.

Flash was Peter’s new partner. “I’ve been waiting for this Parker.” Peter rolled his eyes. He was not in the mood for this right now.

“What’s your problem Flash?” he asked.

“No problem. Just trying to figure out whose ass you had to kiss to get the Avengers to lie for you.” He threw another punch and Peter gave up on trying to pretend he was uncoordinated, blocking it effortlessly and causing Flash to stumble.

“I didn’t kiss anyone’s ass. Even if I had, why would the Avengers lie for me?”

“Don’t know.” Flash huffed. “But I’m going to figure it out.”

Peter stopped, staring at his classmate in disbelief. “Are you serious? Why, Flash? Why are you doing this?”

He didn’t miss a beat. “Because you’re Penis Parker. Stuff like this doesn’t happen for you.”

“You’re just mad because I have something you want. That’s kind of childish don’t you think?”

He regretted it the instant it came out of his mouth. Flash’s hand shot forward and slammed into his face, his body falling to the mat with a thud. “What’s going on?” Mr.Harrington asked. Ned, standing at the front of the group that had gathered around them, looked horrified.

“Peter you’re bleeding.” He pulled his hand away from his face and sure enough, his fingers and chin were slick with red. He could feel the sting of a split lip as he ran over it with his tongue.

“Mr.Thompson,” Mr.Harrington said, his voice dripping with barely concealed anger. “Care to explain?”

“It-it was an accident-”

“Oh bullshit,” MJ snapped. “You really expect anyone to believe that? You’ve had it out for Peter since-”

“Ms.Jones.” Their teacher cut her off with a wave of his hand. “We’ll discuss this when we get back to school. Mr.Thompson, you’ll spend the remainder of the trip on the bus.” Flash opened his mouth to protest but Mr.Harrington didn’t let him get a word in. “As for you Mr.Parker, go get yourself cleaned up.” Peter nodded curtly and ducked into the training room’s adjacent bathroom, brushing off Natasha’s hand as she reached out to him.

This is just fantastic, he thought. The split lip was nothing short of annoying but with the whole class having seen it he wasn’t going to be able to explain the fact that it was healed before they got back to school very easily.

“Peter?” Ned stepped into the bathroom with a short knock. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” he sighed as he wiped the rest of the blood off his chin. “I just thought that once Flash knew I wasn’t lying about the internship he would lay off but I guess not.”

“Yeah well, Flash being a dick isn’t going to change just because people at school realize you’re cooler than him.”

Peter snorted. “Right.”

But, as Parker Luck would have it, Flash punching him in the face wasn’t the worst part of the trip.

-

When Peter and Ned regrouped with their class they were already in the shop Ian had pointed out earlier. It was a part of the compound Peter was rarely ever in, as it was mostly reserved for tours. It was set up like a gallery; glass cases stood all around the room housing old suits, weapons, and tech. Tony was at the front answering questions and he gave Peter a strange look as he walked in.

_What the hell happened to you?_

Instead of acknowledging it, he opted to watch out the window. It was a nice day, barely a cloud in the sky and the compound was far enough away from any main roads that even Peter’s super senses couldn’t pick up any sounds of traffic. It was one of his favorite things about this place, the silence so different from his apartment in the city. It helped that there was rarely anyone here. He had to be so careful in Queens, about what he said and did, where he went, who he talked to because even the slightest mistake posed the risk of his secret identity no longer being secret. The compound was the one place he didn’t have to hide, but that didn’t mean it was completely safe either.

God, I sound like Happy.

As if on cue, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. A black van had pulled up outside the gate and there was a brief pause before it opened and the car rolled to a stop in front of the gallery. At first, he thought he had it wrong. Then a man jumped down from the driver's seat carrying an assault rifle.

“Get down!” he yelled. “Everybody get down!” He made eye contact with MJ across the room before the windows blew out, sending him flying to the side. A long moment passed before Peter was able to open his eyes again and he blinked once, twice until the spots disappeared. The last of his classmates were running out the back door as he ducked behind the closest display and he could only hope MJ was smart enough to have left. Three men had stepped into the room, armed head to toe with tactical gear. Robbers? Peter thought. Even if the Avengers no longer used the stuff in the gallery, there were a lot of people all over the world that would pay good money to have even a piece of their tech.

“Is there a reason you aren’t running like everyone else?”

He froze.

Crouched behind the display next to him was MJ. There was a long cut down the side of her face and her hands were trembling but she was fixing him with an expression like he was the one that had a lot of explaining to do. “MJ what are you doing here?”

“I’m not leaving without you.”

Peter loved and hated her for it.

“MJ you need to get out of here-”

“No.” she hissed, grabbing him by the wrist. “I am not some damsel in distress ok, I don’t need you to save me, so I am not going anywhere.” Peter could feel his panic rising as the gunmen’s footsteps drew closer. He didn’t have his web-shooters. They were at the bottom of his backpack a few yards away and he prayed that Tony had called for backup, that the other Avengers would come busting through the door and that for once in her life Michelle would stop being so fucking stubborn.

“I know you’re not,” he said, grabbing hold of her shoulders. “But these guys- they’re- I need you to get out of here please.”

“No.” she insisted again. “We’re in this together, do you hear me?”

He took a deep breath, “Ok,” he whispered. “Ok, here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna distract them while you run and grab my bag there,” he pointed, making sure she saw it before he continued. “There are things that look like bracelets at the bottom, I need you to grab them and throw them to me. After that, you hide and don’t come out until it’s over. ”

“But-”

“MJ, please. Do you trust me?”

She didn’t miss a beat. “Of course.”

“Then I need you to do this. Please.”

A whirlwind of emotions passed over her face at that moment; anger, disbelief, fear. She opened her mouth and closed it again and Peter knew this was going to be an argument later. She was going to scream and tell him how unbelievably stupid it was for him to stand in front of a shooter unarmed but he would take that over watching someone else he loved die any day.

Eventually, her expression cooled into steely resolve and she shifted to her hands and knees, waiting for his signal. He counted it down on his fingers.

One

Two

Three

He stood from behind the display case, hands raised above his head. “Well, what do we have here?” One of the gunmen asked. His tone was mocking. “A kid who thinks he can play the hero.” He raised his gun so the barrel was level with Peter’s forehead. “That was a pretty stupid mistake.”

Peter snorted. He could see MJ grab for his backpack out of the corner of his eye and tried to swallow the bile in his throat when he saw the floor was streaked with blood. Just a little more time. “Statement’s a little backward don’t you think? I mean you are the one who had the genius idea to shoot up the Avengers compound armed with three guys and a van.” All three guns were trained on him as he stepped closer.

“Oh and he’s got a mouth on him too.” the first gunman sneered. “Don’t worry kid, we’re just the distraction.” Peter stopped. That was why he was the only one here. It had nothing to do with the tech in the gallery, it was about the students. Threaten enough civilian lives and the Avengers would come running. Who knew how many more of them were scattered over the property?

“Peter!” Michelle yelled and he had just enough time to duck as a shot went off, launching himself across the floor to catch the web-shooters she slid towards him.

The nanotech conformed to his wrists instantly.

He aimed for the legs of the man headed for MJ, knocking him off his feet and using the force of his weight to kick his rifle into his face. He took the second down easily enough, catching the punch he threw in his free hand and twisting at a severe angle, slamming him into the ground.

But the third was far enough away that he fired a shot into the display case Michelle hid behind before Peter could stop him and his attention flickered for a fraction of a second. The man pressed his advantage, knocking Peter down and emptying his magazine into the floor around him, the boy barely managing to roll away in time. When his ammo ran out he tossed his gun to the side and pulled a knife from his belt, raising it high in the air. He was about to bring it down on Peter’s head when his body went rigid and collapsed.

MJ stood above them, holding one of the weapons from a shattered display case in her hands. Peter was suddenly very glad she hadn’t left.

“Thanks.” He said as he stood, giving her a once over. There was glass in her hair, stained red from the cut on her face, and scrapes on her hands and knees but she looked otherwise unharmed. “Are you ok?”

She nodded, her lips pressed into a tight line. “So I guess I know what you wanted to talk about after school.” she gestured pointedly to his web-shooters. “You’re Spider-Man.”

“Em, I wanted to tell you I just…. couldn’t.”

“Why?” She asked. She didn’t sound angry, just curious.

“Because I was afraid,” Peter admitted uncomfortably. “I was afraid that if you found out who he was, who I was, that you would be disappointed.”

There was a long pause and another before Michelle scoffed, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. “You’re an idiot Peter.”

“What?”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” she said, enunciating every syllable like he was dense. “Am I thrilled that it’s you? No, but that’s because everything I see about Spider-Man - about you- is about you getting shot at, or running through fires or getting buildings dropped on you.” She closed her eyes, squeezing his hands tight in hers. “I love you, Peter. I just don’t want to lose you.”

Peter really was an idiot.

“I love you too.”

He reached up to pull her in for a kiss, which was brought short when Tony came bursting into the gallery, repulsors blazing as if he was ready to shoot down the next thing that moved. When he realized it was only Peter and MJ, his suit slowly retracted back into its housing unit. “Well, I see you have this handled.” He said. “I’m assuming she knows?”

Peter chuckled. “Yeah, Tony she knows.”

“Good cause if she didn’t,” his mentor stepped over the first gunman’s body with a look of revulsion. “I think we would need to have a talk about whether or not she belongs in that so-called genius school.”

They were quiet for a moment. Peter could hear sirens coming up the main road and just outside the door, his classmates talking in hushed, frightened voices. “Is everyone ok? What was that?” Tony ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

“You remember that mission we went on a few months ago? There was a small extension of HYDRA in California?” Peter nodded. “The flash drive we stole from them, they came to get it back. Had people all over the place. Happy’s still trying to figure out how that happened, so aside from a security team that’s gonna be fired tomorrow, yeah everyone’s ok.”

Peter knew he should have felt relieved, but dread was quickly pooling in the pit of his stomach. There wasn’t a single window in that gallery left intact, and even if they hadn’t seen the fight, his class had to have known that he wasn’t out of the building yet. There was no way the clumsy, asthmatic Peter Parker who they had known for over a decade had any chance of taking out three men with guns.

Tony and MJ must have noticed his change in demeanor because they both tensed, glancing around wildly for signs of danger. “Peter, what’s wrong?”

“They know,” he whispered. “ My entire class they-”

“Kid.” Tony clapped his hands on Peter’s shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eyes. “It’s ok. We’ll get some NDA’s, have Natasha glare at some people, it’ll be fine.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stark.” Peter instantaneously relaxed. “No problem kid. Just be more careful about revealing your identity next time.” He couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes.

“Whatever Mr. I am Iron Man.”


End file.
